"If it pleases our God and Father to take you to himself, he will support your faith, my mother, and give you victory over every fear and every temptation. Trust in Him, and Him alone, and he will be your guide ever unto death. His rod and his staff they shall comfort you; and while you lean on Him for support, he will not suffer your foot to slide." "Bless thee, my child," said Salome affectionately; "what a comfort has God given me in you! Nothing has so strongly shown me the power and the holiness of the religion which you now profess, as the change which it has worked in your character, and the spirit of joy and consolation and meekness and gentleness that it has imparted to you. When we meet hereafter before the throne of God, it will be my pride to remember that you, my Naomi, pointed out to me the way thither, and your bright example allured me into it." "Cease, cease, dear mother!" cried Naomi: "oh, do not thus rob God of the honour that is all his own, to give any part to a sinful creature like me. If he has been pleased to make me the humble instrument of revealing to you the way of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, to Him be all the glory and all the praise. Throughout eternity I will bless Him for the privilege, and declare my own unworthiness. Oh that I had grace and strength to act up to the spirit of those doctrines which I so feebly endeavour to impart to you! But I have need of teaching on every point; and were it not for the grace of my Redeemer, and the power of his Holy Spirit, I should fall into sin each hour of my life. How many are my provocations of Him every day, notwithstanding all his mercy to me! It is only by constant prayer that my sins may be blotted out afresh, and washed away in his atoning blood, that I can in any degree preserve my confidence that I am pardoned and accepted by Him. Let me entreat you to use the same humble means, and you too, my mother, will find rest to your soul, and be enabled to glory in the hope of your free forgiveness and everlasting glory." "I have already found some consolation in prayer, Naomi, since I have offered it in the name of Jesus. I can feel more confidence that God has pardoned me, when I am enabled to believe that his only Son has shed his blood to take away my sins, than when I trusted in the blood of sacrifices to make a propitiation for them. I see now that those sacrifices could never take away sin."